Chapter Sixteen Page 10
Cybele: Are you here for the debate? Which candidate are you supporting?
Sparrow: Dana Wells, obviously. Bennett is terrible.
Cybele: Oh? Why’s that?
Sparrow: Where to start? He hates poor people. He thinks it makes sense to spend billions defending the country from terrorists and Beings but no money defending from cancer and potholes. He’s sexist, he’s homophobic, he’s racist —
And he —
Cybele: I don’t think he’s racist!
Sparrow: . . . Uh . . .
. . . look, I appreciate that it would be obnoxious of me to argue with you about this, so I’m not gonna try.
[Has tried it before. It didn’t go well.]
Sparrow: But it’s not possible for me to agree with every person of color at once, so I’m going to keep agreeing with the ones who disagree with you, okay? Okay.
Cybele: If you want!
[Is not an actual black person.]
Cybele (thinking): Weird . . . the boss said it’d stump liberals if I said that when I looked like this. Maybe she’s not a “liberal”?
*Laughing hysterically*
To Bennett’s credit, that is, in fact, a good strategy. Maybe he has some political savvy that we just haven’t seen? I wonder if Park has done similar things. Seems like a politician kind of thing to do.
Cybele’s reasoning is going to lead to some hilarious misunderstanding. I hope.
You’re right, this IS to Bennett’s credit. He’s stupid, but he’s a fantastic politician. I think that’s the only way he’s gotten this far in his career.
She isn’t really black, but she isn’t really white either :-)
I’m impressed with Sparrow’s debate skills. That was actually a REALLY good pre-fabricated response to “[I’m black and] I don’t think he’s racist”.
As an argumentative, college-age liberal with an Internet connection, I figure she’s gone wading into those arguments for long enough to work out how to avoid the biggest mines.